Baba Jamal Dares Health Minister

Mr. Baba Jamal, Former Deputy Minister Employment and Labour Relations, has challenged the Akufo-Addo government and the Ministry of Health to officially publish names of all the 11,000 health trainees who graduated between the years 2012 and 2016.

According to him, although the National Democratic Congress (NDC) doubts the figures churned out by the government and the health ministry, making available he names of those health trainees who the government claimed has employed will lend credence to the fact that indeed the government has embarked on action within the health sector.

It could be recalled that as part of the 100 days achievements of the NPP administration in office, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, among other things, boasted that within the country’s health sector, the government has offered employment opportunity to 11,000 health trainees who graduated between 2012 and 2016.

But speaking to this paper, the former Member of Parliament for the Akwatia Constituency described Dr. Bawumia’s statement as false and a desperate attempt to deceive the good people of Ghana.

“It is not true that they have employed 11,000 health trainees in the country. If they are saying the NDC is lying then let the NPP government publish those names and the exact posting centers these trainees are working. Yes I am daring the government and the Ministry of Health to publish the names,” he stressed.

Mr. Jamal contended that his challenge to government should not be anything difficult for the government to do since there are available records to show.

He revealed that the previous NDC government under former President Mahama gave clearance to about 3,600 nurses that should have been approved a long time ago, but unfortunately the NPP government after assumption of office in 2017 decided to suspend majority of this health professionals.

The former deputy general secretary of the NDC also accused the Akufo-Addo administration for painting its predecessor the NDC government black in connection with the removal of the nursing training allowance which, according to him, gave an opportunity to many students to gain admission into any nursing training institution in the country, and pointed out that it is rather the NPP government which has worsened the woes of prospective nursing training students by placing a limitation on the number of students an institution can admit.

“Do you know that the NPP government has placed limitation on how many applications can be admitted into one institution? Some of the institutions are not allowed to admit more than 50 students, others admit even below 100 students. Institutions that were formerly admitting 200 students are now allowed to take only 100 because of the new policy being implemented by this government,” he stated.

He noted further that the Mahama administration’s move to scrap the trainees’ allowances made it possible for many health training institutions in the country to expand and admit more students from 5000 to 15,000.